


Elena's No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Week in 1864

by kit123



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:20:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23438344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kit123/pseuds/kit123
Summary: Elena's friends decide not to put up with her sacrificial martyrdom.Or a season 2 divergence where Bonnie sends Elena out of time in order to prevent Klaus from using her in his ritual. A series of drabbles about Elena's adventures in Mystic Falls circa 1864.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	1. In Which Elena Ends up in the Past

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all. Please don't expect any kind of coherence from this. I just really wanted Elena to interact with human!Stefan and Damon and also Katherine at her 1800s prime, and needed a reason for this to happen.
> 
> Bonnie is not going to let her friend walk to her death, and if Elena won't stay home, she will stash Elena somewhere that 1) Klaus can't get to her and 2) Elena can't get to Klaus.

Elena is definitely going to make them all pay when she gets back home. What kind of friends ambush a girl and send her away ‘for her own good’?

“Oh Elena,” she mimics, stomping through the forest, “it’s not safe for you here. Especially not with you going about willy-nilly and making deals with Elijah. How dare you try to control your own life!”

She knows her anger is not altogether fair, but she honestly doesn’t have a suicide wish or a martyr complex, despite what Bonnie and Stefan said.

Well, maybe she has a little bit of a martyr complex. But when everyone is dying around you, for you, it’s hard not to develop one.

Not to mention the fact that Bonnie hadn’t even bothered to say where she was sending her before casting the spell. Admittedly, Elena had been fighting back wildly at the time, and hadn’t been willing to listen to anyone, but still. 

The forest she was walking through looked just like the one in Mystic Falls, except some of the trees were smaller, and it didn’t carry the same smell of exhaust and people.  
Elena had a very bad feeling about this.

That feeling only became more sure when she walked to what should have been the path to town and saw town – except about a century older than the town she knew.

“Time travel, really Bonnie?” Elena muttered to herself, staring at the horses and dirt and general lack of modern technology. “Oh my god,” she said, in a horrified voice, “they don’t have bathrooms here. Someone is definitely going to suffer when I get back home.”

This would – according to Bonnie - be in about a week, after the night that Klaus would be able to assume his hybrid identity passed. What she was supposed to do for that week, Elena had no idea.

“Ok, Elena,” and hopefully this habit of talking to herself wasn’t going to follow her back to her time, “think. You need a place to stay for the week. Also, Katherine is here, no one knows who you are, and you really don’t want to get mistaken for her and staked. The smartest thing to do would be to avoid Katherine and anyone who knows her, but unfortunately that is not an option in this small town.”

Elena watches people pass from the safe cover of the trees. “Damnit. I’m going to have to depend on Katherine. At least Emily will be there – hopefully Bonnie’s ancestress will be willing to take me in and keep me alive.”

She vaguely remembered Bonnie saying something about how Elena wouldn’t be able to mess with the time stream because once the week was over and she was gone, time would naturally reset itself, but honestly she hadn’t been paying that much attention. Hopefully, Bonnie had, through some mystical mojo, contacted her ancestress to advise of Elena’s arrival.

The way Elena’s life had been going recently though – she wasn’t holding out much hope.

The only way to survive, Elena decided, was to adapt. “If I were Katherine,” she mused, “what would I do?” The answer was obvious – stroll right into the middle of town, and take on her identity. But then, since that was exactly what Katherine had done, it hadn’t been difficult to figure out.

At least she was in period appropriate clothes – it explained why Bonnie had waited for one of their town’s parties to cast the spell – not that she’d had to wait long. Mystic Falls liked to celebrate.

Elena took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and marched into sunlight. Time to face the world.

Of course, she wasn’t exactly expecting to come face to face with Katherine right away.

Katherine’s eyes widened in shock, and Elena knows her own face reflected horrified surprise. There was a bubble of silence, and for a moment time seemed to slow around them. ‘Oh shit,’ Elena thought. ‘I am so not prepared for this’.

Then Katherine straightened up, beamed a smile at Elena, and exclaimed, “Sister! I‘ve been so worried about you. I wasn’t sure if you’d survived, or if you had received my message about Mystic Falls.” She rushed forward. “Thank goodness you’re all right!” 

Then she lunged and grabbed Elena tightly, whispering in her ear, “I don’t know who you are, but if you don’t play along, you won’t live long enough for it to matter.”  
It was a good thing Katherine was good at improvisation, Elena reflected, wondering how long she was going to be able go without breathing, the way Katherine was squeezing her. Also good that Katherine had been accompanied by other people, and they were in the middle of town, and so would be unable to murder her without witnesses.

“Right,” Elena wheezed. “If you don’t stop hugging me though, I won’t be able to tell you anything, since I’ll be unconscious.”

Katherine gave one last tight squeeze, before releasing her and stepping back. “Come,” she said, holding Elena’s hand and thus preventing any escape, “let us go back to the Salvatore home, and we can catch up on everything I’ve missed.”

Then she proceeded to drag Elena through the streets, to what was quite possibly the last place Elena wanted to go.


	2. In Which Elena and 1864 Stefan Meet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elena takes back every wish she ever had to meet Stefan before he became a vampire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahah like I said expect no coherence!
> 
> There's a missing chapter here where Elena and Katherine talk, and Elena tells her that she's only here for the week, time stream will reset, oh and also if Katherine kills her a paradox will be unleashed and destroy the world. Katherine almost kills her anyway, but Emily stops her. 
> 
> Katherine then tells the rest of the household about her poor, newly homeless twin, who is invited to stay for the week. I have not yet written that chapter but here, have some Stefan instead.
> 
> Also I've upped Elena's age to 18 even though I know her birthday doesn't happen til S3. In fact, in later chapters I've merged a bit of the S2 finale/S3 beginnings (like Elena knowing about Stefan's Wall of Murder) because...it's my fantasy and I can do what I want.

“You’re Katherine’s sister.” His voice comes unexpectedly from behind her.

Elena whirls around, sees him, and for a moment it’s like she can breathe again; like her lungs have expanded to fill her chest. Except he’s only looking at her with interest and curiosity; there’s nothing else in his gaze.

Elena has never known a Stefan who wasn’t in love with her. Before she ever laid eyes on him, he’d watched her, protected her (and, yes, that disturbed her, but it was still a fact). Stefan had loved her before they met, and had never stopped.

Elena doesn’t know what to say, to someone who wears his face and body, but who breathes because he needs to, and whose eyes look so much younger.

It’s funny, because as a human, they’re pretty much the same age. It just doesn’t feel like it. Stefan at seventeen is so much younger than Elena at eighteen. She’s never felt the 150 year age difference as keenly as she feels this one year.

Stefan – human Stefan, Katherine’s Stefan – is still watching at her, his head cocked slightly to the side. It makes her heart hurt a little, because she remembers that look. He wears it when something new, something fascinating that he doesn’t quite understand, is presented to him (he’s never looked at her like that. It’s not a romantic look. It’s the look a child has while burning ants under a magnifying glass). 

(Stefan had looked at Mason like that, until Mason had ceased to be interesting. Now Mason was dead. It’s hard for Elena to remember sometimes that before he was hers, Stefan was a killer. He was a killer after he was hers too of course, but then, so was she. It makes it hard to judge). 

“You’re Stefan,” she says, and her voice doesn’t tremble, her hands don’t shake. There is no external proof that her heart is breaking (it’s already broken so many times, it’s become calloused. Protected. Klaus’ Stefan would approve. Elena wishes for a moment that she had met him first, human Stefan before anyone – Katherine, Lexi, Damon, Klaus – had claimed him. She wants to make him hers, in a way so unbreakable that a thousand years after her human body has turned to ash, he will still never belong to anybody else. Elena has always been selfish, and she’s never been sorry for it.)

“She’s told you about me then.” Stefan smiles, pleased that the girl he loves talks about him. “The resemblance is remarkable,” he says, walking around her, eyeing her up and down. “If she hadn’t warned me you were here, I wouldn’t have known, although I like to think I would have seen something different about you.” 

She knows he wouldn’t have. Elena may not be as expert as Katherine at playing doppleganger, but she knows enough to pull it off. Stefan’s always been easy to fool. Although fool may not be the right word – Stefan always wants to believe in the lie that makes him happiest. Right now, that lie is Katherine.


	3. Meet Cute? More Like Meet Awkward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Stefan and Elena share another painfully awkward moment and Damon finally makes an appearance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo there's another missing scene here where Katherine fills Damon in on the details and is like watch my little time traveling doppleganger and make sure she doesn't get up to any mischief. 
> 
> But instead of writing that, I wrote this.

Elena runs into Stefan going down the stairs.

“Oh, excuse me,” he says absently, already looking past her. It’s easy to see the differences between Katherine and Elena when Katherine isn’t trying to impersonate anyone, and Stefan’s always been a quick study.

“It’s fine,” Elena says, sliding past him and trying to avoid all physical contact. “It’s your house after all.”

He glances back at her. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable here,” he tells her. “You’re Katherine’s sister after all, and she’s,” Stefan hesitates for a moment, as if unsure how to phrase his emotions, “she’s very dear to me; to all of us really.”

“I know,” Elena replies quietly. It’s impossible not to know, with how Damon’s and Stefan’s eyes always find her, as if they can’t look away.

Stefan nods, looking awkward, like he’s unsure how to speak to her. “Well, good,” he says, shifting his feet. “I don’t want you to feel unwelcome.”

“I don’t,” Elena assures him, trying and failing to smile politely. Stefan opens his mouth, probably to make another painfully well-mannered remark, and Elena quickly turns away. She doesn’t want to see Stefan like this anymore.

“Right,” she hears from behind her. “Have a good day then.” Stefan’s feet tread heavily up the stairs.

Elena leans against the wall and takes deep breaths.

“That was horrifying,” a voice says from below her. Elena briefly closes her eyes, because of course Damon is here to see her emotionally vulnerable moment. Some things don’t change.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Elena tells him (denial aint just a river in Egypt, at least not for the rest of this week).

“Please,” Damon snorts. “Katherine might have to compel innocent little Stefan, but she tells me exactly what’s going on.”

Elena doubts that. Katherine never tells anyone anything she doesn’t have to…unless she’s bored. Then all bets are off.

“And what did she tell you about me,” Elena asks, raising an eyebrow.

Damon smirks. “You’re her doppleganger from the future, and once this week is up, that’s exactly where you’ll be going back to.” 

Elena’s surprised Katherine’s been so open with Damon, but then this is the Damon that waited for her for 150 years. She doesn’t think there’s anything Katherine could say, at this point in time, to make Damon turn away.

“Congratulations,” Elena says. “You know more than Stefan. Does that make you happy, that she doesn’t care enough to hide the truth from you?”

It’s cruel, to speak to him like this, but part of Damon’s charm is that she’s allowed to be cruel to him, in a way she can never be to Stefan, no matter what century it is. “Incorrect,” Damon scowls, glaring at her. “She trusts me enough to tell me the truth. We both know Stefan would just go running to dear old Dad if he knew.”

“Actually,” Elena leans forward slightly, “that’s where you’re wrong. When Stefan finds out, he doesn’t tell your father. He tries to protect her. He fails of course, you both do, but that doesn’t matter. Katherine always protects herself. She really doesn’t need either of you.”

Damon laughs sharply. “You’re really jealous of her aren’t you.” It’s not a question. “Stefan in the future means that much to you?”

He does, but it’s not just Stefan. It’s Damon too, and how Damon looks at her like she’s nothing. Elena’s not exactly proud of her feelings for Damon, but that doesn’t make them any less real.

Elena almost doesn’t say anything, but then changes her mind. “I love Stefan,” she says casually. “But I care about you too. You shouldn’t discount yourself, Damon, just because Katherine does.” Katherine’s not the only one who can play games. Maybe it’s wrong, but she misses the way Damon looks at her almost as much as she misses Stefan’s love.

Damon looks like he’s been punched, which was her goal, and Elena refuses to feel guilty. “I think you’re more like Katherine than you care to admit.”

He’s not wrong, and Elena pushes past him, walking out the front door. She doesn’t feel like dealing with either Salvatore brother right now.


	4. Aint no Party like a Mystic Falls Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Mystic Falls does what it does best and throws a ball. Oh, also some make-outs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very small reference to season 3 Stefan going off with Klaus even though this technically takes place before the end of season 2, but what is a timeline anyway??

Elena wanted to be alone, to not watch the way Katherine was kissing Stefan, the way Stefan was letting Katherine kiss him – like she owned him, and no one else would ever supersede her claim.

She turns around, walking away from the ballroom. She ends up in the garden, under a hanging willow tree, and leans against the trunk, breathing hard. It wasn’t fair, that she had to be here, to see this. She didn’t belong, and there was a reason this Stefan didn’t love her. It was the same reason she didn’t love him, not the way she loved the future Stefan.

He was just so young. His father’s opinion was of paramount importance to him, and the most rebellious thing he’d ever done was sneak off to make out with Katherine. He still conformed to the rules of society, and he liked his life. He was happy, in his house, in his town.

He’d never killed anyone. He would have soon, even if he hadn’t become a vampire, since the army was drafting every able bodied man it could. But he hadn’t yet. He didn’t have the regret of those deaths in him (he didn’t have the joy of the kill in him).

He hadn’t lived two centuries, and seen the variety of human existence, seen history being written right in front of him. He wasn’t innocent exactly, but he was young, and even though she could see the roots of the person he would grow in to, he wasn’t there yet.

It still hurt, watching him look at Katherine the way he would look at her in the future.

Elena tilted her head back to the sky and wondered when life got so complicated. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. She was going to grow up, go to college, get a job, meet someone, maybe settle down and have a few kids. Maybe it wouldn’t have been exciting, but it would have been good. Epic love and vampire fights were never in the plan. Neither was magic, time travel, or death. Too bad life doesn’t always go according to plan.

Something moved in the dark next to her, and Elena whirled around, falling into the fighting stance Alaric had trained her in. She had a stake under her skirt, but no other weapons, other than the vervain (still) around her neck.

“Oh relax,” said a painfully familiar voice. “It’s just me.”

Damon stepped into the light, and it hit Elena again how different this time period was. Because it was still Damon, cocky and smirking, but this Damon didn’t view the world with indifference. This Damon had a life that didn’t revolve around Elena or Katherine, although Katherine was certainly doing her best to change that (spoiler: she succeeds).

“Sulking are we? Couldn’t stand to see your precious Stefan kissing someone else?” his smile is bitter and that, if nothing else, is familiar.

“Poor Damon,” Elena replies, falsely sympathetic. “Always second to Stefan, no matter the century or girl.”

Damon glares, and he’s always been so easy to rile up. You just have to know which buttons to press (Katherine is pretty much always a sure bet). She might feel bad, at the hurt look on his face, except his whining gets old really quickly. Elena had no plans to be subjected to his angst, and the quickest way to cut off his brooding was to anger him.

“At least the girl still wants me sometimes. You’re just a shadow he doesn’t even care to look at,” Damon’s voice is shaking, because he hasn’t learned how to control his emotions yet (or at least, how to feign control; he’s never been very good at denying himself).

Elena glances at him from the corner of her eyes. “At least I don’t delude myself with false hope.” She pushes herself off the tree and stretches, very aware of how Damon’s eyes follow the lines of her body. 

Turning to face him, Elena makes an abrupt decision. If she was going to suffer in this century, then she sure as hell wasn’t going to suffer alone. “Damon,” she said, stepping closer. “Want to have some fun?” And then she smiled, the way she had seen Katherine smile countless times – reckless, crazy, and completely uncaring.

Damon swallowed hard. “You,” his voice broke a little, “You’re not her.”

Elena tilted her head, contemplating him. “No,” she agreed. “But then, you’re not him.” She doesn’t know if she’s referring to Stefan, or to Damon’s future self, but the statement is true in either case.

Damon steps closer, raising a hand and brushing against her cheek. She sighs, her breath fanning across his fingers, and he shudders. “I keep forgetting,” he whispers, “that you’re human.”

She places her hand over his, closing the distance between them until they’re only a breath apart. “I keep forgetting the same thing,” she breathes into his mouth, and then they’re kissing. It’s gentle, almost delicate, and Damon makes a broken sound in the back of his throat. Elena knows without asking that he’s never kissed Katherine this way, but he’s always wanted to (only Stefan gets to kiss her like this).

He slants his mouth over hers, the kiss becoming more insistent, backing her up against the tree that supported her earlier. But neither of them are actually vampires, and they have to break apart to breathe. “Katherine,” Damon murmurs, eyes closed.

Elena almost pities him for a moment. “Wrong again,” she says softly, her hand falling from his face. She’s always going to be the wrong one here. She doesn’t think a week is long enough to get used to it – to being the reflection of someone else.

It almost hurts more coming from him, because Damon had stayed even when Stefan left. She hadn’t encouraged his feelings for her, but she’d always secretly been glad they were there. It made her feel powerful, and wanted. Every girl wants to be wanted.

Damon opens his eyes, but doesn’t actually see her, and Elena misses her boys so much it’s a physical ache.

He steps back, and tries to smile cockily, but it falls flat on his face. Elena wonders for a moment what Damon would be, if he weren’t obsessed with Katherine (she doesn’t think he would be different; she may only have taken one psych class, but it’s clear Damon has an obsessive personality – if it wasn’t Katherine, it would be someone else).

He opens his mouth to speak, but the balcony doors above them open suddenly, spilling out the noise and lights from the party. 

Elena says, very quietly, “You don’t love her anymore, in the future. Or at least, you don’t love her like she’s your whole world.” She doesn’t say ‘You love me like that’ because she’s not that cruel, and Damon deserves to have some hope.

He shrugs jerkily, trying to give a picture of indifference. It’s still unpracticed, but for a moment Elena sees an older (but not-older) Damon giving the same careless shrug. She laughs, because she knows how to deal with her issues by now.

“We should get back to the party.”

“Why,” Damon asks, “It’s not like anyone will be missing us.”

“No,” Elena agrees, linking her arm through Damon’s. “But how can we make anyone jealous hiding in the garden?”

Stefan doesn’t look at her once as she whirls around the dance floor with Damon. Damon’s eyes never focus on her, and she knows from the direction of his gaze exactly where Katherine is standing in the shadows.


	5. Cereal is criminally underrated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Breakfast and pining and emotions oh my!
> 
> Or Elena eats breakfast and has a heart to heart with both boys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, once more, there is no real timeline here. All you need to know is at some point before these scenes, Stefan finds out Katherine is a vampire and Elena is a doppleganger from the future.

It wasn’t that she was actively avoiding Stefan – she just didn’t really want to see him. ‘Three more days,’ she reminded herself. Three more days, and then she would be back home, with a Stefan who loved her, a Damon who was obsessed with her, and a life that was full of problems that were easier to handle than this alternate reality she was currently in.

Of course, that reminder didn’t really help much when Stefan was staring intently at her across the breakfast table.

“You don’t eat like her,” he said abruptly, and Elena had been really hoping he would just keep to the status quo of silence.

“Well, considering the fact that Katherine only eats to keep up appearances, I wouldn’t expect to eat like her,” Elena replied, purposefully slurping her next spoonful of porridge (she couldn’t wait to have a bowl of cereal when she got home. She really missed processed food).

Stefan let out half a laugh, as if he wasn’t sure he was allowed to laugh at anything she said. Katherine had, apparently, had a stern talk with Stefan and Damon about Boundaries and Love, and Elena was now supposedly off limits.

Elena thinks bitterly that Katherine really doesn’t have to worry about the boys deserting her – they’re so much under her thumb at this point that Elena could run naked through the streets and the only thing they’d think was that Katherine had a better body (which really wasn’t fair – vampires had an extra advantage on the good looks front. Mostly. Some of those tomb vampires had been less than lovely, but Elena is pretty sure they had been even worse as humans).

“No,” Stefan said, “I mean – you don’t move like her. You move like a…human.”

Elena stared at him. Wow, she marveled, 150 years of experience really did make you smarter. At least Stefan was still pretty (Damon was still pretty too, but Elena had plans to borrow the gardener’s weed whacker before time sucked her back up, and fix his awful haircut).

“Stefan,” she said slowly, “I am human.”

Stefan gestured impatiently. “Obviously,” he stated, as if she were the slow one (he’d never talked down to her in the future, and she wondered if that was due more to his maturity level or love), “but you’d think being a doppleganger would give you some advantages.”

He eyed her as if she were a rare specimen, and Elena stuffed her mouth with another bite of porridge to prevent herself from saying something she’d regret (she knows whatever she says will have no effect on Stefan, and she’s really not in the mood to be examined).

She pushes her chair back. “As lovely as this conversation has been,” she said with a fake smile, “I should go.”

Stefan raised an eyebrow. “Huh,” he said, “you must be fairly enamored with future me.”

Elena’s hands curl into fists, her nails digging into her palm. “Why would you say that?” she asked.

“You can barely look at me,” Stefan pointed out. “And when you do, it’s like you see someone else.”

Elena wanted to say that he should know, considering that he only saw Katherine when he looked at her, but the words clog up in her throat. 

It’s not that she doesn’t see him, when she looks, because she does; but she wishes that it wasn’t him in front of her, and maybe that comes through.

“Why do you even care,” she asked, feeling exhausted. “I don’t mean anything to you.” It hurts to say, but it’s the truth.

“Apparently, you’ll come to mean a great deal to me,” Stefan says. “I’m just wondering what I see in you. Despite your physical similarities, you don’t act much like Katherine.”

Elena shrugged tiredly. “You once told me that you found me because I looked just like her – but you started to love me after you realized how different we were.”

“I love Katherine. Maybe in the future that changes, but right now,” Stefan glanced out the window, towards the main part of town where Katherine is currently shopping, “right now, she’s everything.”

“And I’m nothing,” Elena finishes.

Stefan shook his head. “No,” he corrected. “You should be nothing. Just a girl who looks like the love of my life,” and Elena wants to say, I’m the love of your unlife, but she doesn’t. “I can’t stop thinking about you, comparing you.”

Elena let out a sharp laugh. “You really need to learn how to talk to women, Stefan. No one likes to hear about constantly being compared to someone else, and falling short every time.”

“You’re kinder than her,” Stefan said softly. “You care more. You put yourself last where she puts herself first, and you throw yourself into dangerous situations to protect those you love.” His hand comes up as if to touch her, before stopping midway. “The only person who falls short is me – and considering I’m being compared to myself, that’s almost worse.”

Elena’s eyes burn, but the tears don’t fall. “You don’t love me.”

“No,” Stefan agreed. “But I could.”

Elena looked at him wearily. “Trust me when I say this Stefan –right now, at this point in your life, no, you couldn’t.”

She walked out of the room, because one thing the past has made her really good at is walking away from Stefan.

Damon was waiting for her outside of the dining room of course. She continued past him without speaking, hoping he would let her go, knowing he wouldn’t.

“You were rather harsh with him, weren’t you?” Damon commented, dropping into step beside her. Elena sighed to herself – ever the protective big brother, even when fighting over the same girl.

“It’s not like he’ll remember,” she replied. “Neither of you will. In three more days it will be like I never existed.”

Damon was silent beside her, which Elena didn’t think was possible for him. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye. He was making his brooding face, complete with angry eyebrows and a pouty mouth. Dammnit.

She stopped and turned to face him. “What? What do you have to be upset about? You’ve put me down since I got here, and basically every conversation we’ve had together ends with you saying ‘I wish Katherine loved me’. It’s not like you’ll even know to miss me.”

Damon gave her a long look. “You said I loved you in the future.” Elena opened her mouth to protest, because she hadn’t actually said that. “No,” Damon said, holding up a hand to stop her, “even if you didn’t say it outright, you heavily implied it.” Elena closed her mouth because he was right. She had.

“Why do you think,” he continued, “that I wouldn’t love you now?”

Elena wants to tell him that it’s because he looks at her like she has all the answers, but it’s still not the way he looks at Katherine.

Elena closes her eyes, bringing her arms protectively around herself. “150 years,” she says, half-smiling, “and you still don’t know your own heart.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” It’s belligerent and angry, and Elena really does not want to deal with this.

“It means that you don’t know me enough to love me. I look like Katherine, which is enough to get your attention. You’ve substituted me in her place because you’re afraid she doesn’t love you the way you want her to.”

Damon reached out to grab her arm, but Elena twisted out of it. He can’t hold her without vampire strength. “Weren’t you listening to anything Stefan said in there?” he asked, clenching his fists. “It’s very obvious your personality is different from Katherine’s. For one thing, you actually tell me the truth when I ask. So why do you really think I can’t love you?”

“Because you’re not him!” her voice echoes in the house, louder than she meant it to. She breathes deeply, trying to calm down. “You’re not my Damon. He’s not my Stefan. She’s not even my Katherine! 150 years may be a drop in the bucket for a long lived vampire, but that doesn’t mean you don’t change.”

“Judging from your reactions, future me is as obsessed with you as I am with Katherine. So how much could I really change?” His tone is bitter, and Elena can’t blame him.

For a moment, Elena wanted to lie to him. She wanted to tell him that he’s over Katherine, he’s built his own (un)life, and he’s happy. But he’d singled out honesty as a differentiator from Katherine, so she tells him the truth. “You’re more careless in the future,” she said, facing the window so she wouldn’t have to see his face. “You live for 150 years and suddenly human life doesn’t matter so much, unless the human matters.”

Damon shifts behind her, clothes rustling. “But you care about me,” he replies, not quite a question.

“I love you.” It’s something Elena hasn’t allowed herself to even think, but when he was dying from a werewolf bite, she’d been forced to face some truths about her feelings. “The thing is Damon – the thing is when someone does matter, you make it really hard to not love you. 

I met Stefan first and he was everything I’d ever dreamed of. I met you and you were nothing I’d ever wanted. You compelled one of my best friends to basically be a sex slave for you. You killed with impunity. You were awful,” Elena turns to face him, voice raw. “You try to control me. You think because you love me you have the right to dictate my life, for my own protection. I’m so angry with you. But you’d give up everything for me, except maybe Stefan. It’s hard not to care, when someone shows you that much devotion, even when you hate it.”

Damon lets out a harsh laugh. “So I basically force you into loving me.”

Elena is silent for a moment. “You don’t force me into anything Damon. Not because you don’t try, but because I don’t let you. I love you because you’re willing to do anything for the people you care about; because underneath your reckless, wild attitude, you want to save everyone. And you can’t. So you pretend not to care and convince yourself it’s the truth.”

He stepped closer, touching her forehead with his. “And what if it is the truth – what if I really am indifferent to the whole world?”

She leaned against him, letting her weight rest on him, letting him carry her for a moment. “You’re not indifferent to me.” Maybe that isn’t a good enough reason to love someone – but right now, here, that’s all the reason she has.


	6. In which Katherine stakes her claim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously, on the Vampire Diaries, Elena and Damon were having a Moment. Katherine is not letting this moment pass at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What??? A chapter that picks up right where the previous chapter ended? Is this what continuity feels like?

“Well isn’t this a cozy moment?” Katherine’s voice is syrupy sweet, sticky with poison. She smiles, sharklike. “Throwing me over so soon after swearing eternal loyalty Damon?” she asks.

Damon springs away from Elena as if he’s been burned, and she stumbles for a moment, before catching herself. She can’t even be angry. She’s used to catching herself.

“Katherine,” Damon starts, trailing off into silence. They stare at each other, and the air literally crackles between them. Elena thinks, she betrayed you, she didn’t care that you loved her for a century and a half, she would have let you die, but doesn’t say any of it because she herself is not any better in the end.

“You don’t have to be jealous Katherine,” Elena says, voice light, body angled away from Damon. “It’s not like any of this is real.”

“Maybe not now,” Katherine replies softly. “But I’m having a…discomforting view of the future you come from.”

Elena laughs, because that statement is so accurate that it hurts. “Oh Kathy,” she says, “you had no idea what you created when you turned them into vampires.” She looks at Damon, loyal, steadfast Damon who gave up his life for Katherine, and didn’t want to live when he thought she was dead; Damon who is so good at building his life around other people, but so bad at living it for himself.

“It’s ok to love her,” she tells him. “You’ve done, will do, many things that you should be ashamed of. Loving someone, anyone, is not one of them.”

She turns to Katherine, focusing on her, removing Damon from the conversation. “You should be kinder. You put them through hell for you.”

“It’s a hell they chose.” Katherine says, eyes hard as stone. “And I used to be kinder. But then I died.” Her lips curl cruelly. “Perhaps someday you’ll find that out for yourself.”

“Not everyone wants to live forever.” They circle each other, two women with the same face, who are more alike than either wants to admit. “Stefan never chose any of this. You compelled him into loving you.”

It’s Katherine’s turn to laugh. “Is that what he told you?” she asks. “No. I compelled him to not be afraid of me. I never compelled his love. He gave that to me willingly. They both did.”

“You realize I’m still right here right?” Damon shifts in her peripheral vision, trying to include himself in the conversation.

“I’m still angry with you,” Katherine says. “If I were you, I’d start apologizing. And staying away from Elena.”

“You,” Damon starts, angry, except Katherine moves faster than he can speak, and cups his face in her hands. “I’m very possessive,” she whispers to him, for him. “I’ve never hidden that from you.” She leans up, her lips brushing his ear. “I don’t share.” Elena hears every word, because Katherine knows exactly how to pitch her voice to carry. And she wants Elena to know that she has been intentionally and completely excluded from the twosome of Katherine and Damon.

“And me?” Damon asks, looking down at her. “I’m expected to share with Stefan.”

“Oh Damon,” Katherine breathes, looking up under her lashes. “Would you really want to live forever if Stefan wasn’t there? Don’t pretend that you don’t love him as much as you love me.”

“Katherine,” he closes his eyes, unable to continue. She stretches up and kisses him, gently. The way she normally only kisses Stefan, the way Damon has always wanted her to. Damon folds into her, their bodies melting together as if they were made for each other.

Elena leaves. It’s what she does best.


	7. It's always going to be someone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Elena has another painful heart to heart with Stefan

“Will you remember?” Stefan’s voice comes unexpectedly from behind her, and Elena starts in surprise. She turns from the window, eyeing Stefan questioningly.

“When you go back to the future. You told us that the timeline would reset itself, and we’d forget all about you, but will you forget about us?” He looks at her intently, focused. She would call it romantic if she didn’t know what he looked like when he truly loved someone.

She shrugs, leaning back against the wall. “I think I’ll remember. Bonnie wasn’t very specific when I was trying to claw my way out of you and Damon.”

“You love me more, in the future, don’t you?” he asks, as if her answer is a foregone conclusion. Well, it’s not like she’s been that secretive with which brother is her preferred companion. Damon’s known since the first time he watched her watch Stefan.

“You’re easy to love,” Elena tells him. “I loved you first, in the future. It’s different from how I love Damon.” She gazes contemplatively at Stefan. “With Damon, it’s more of a love-hate relationship. He’s very infuriating.”

“So I’m easier then. That’s why you chose me over him.” She laughs, because nothing about Stefan has ever been easy. Nothing about any of this has.

“No,” she says. “I chose you over Damon because you treat me like I’m capable; like I can make my own decisions. I met you when my life was, frankly, awful. Which is funny, because it hasn’t become better since we met, but it has become more bearable. Mostly thanks to you.” 

She steps closer to him, not reaching out, although all she wants to do is fold herself into his arms like she has countless times before. “I chose you because you made me want to live again. Everything felt more real when I was with you.”

Stefan lets out a breath, holding her eyes. “That’s how I feel,” he says quietly, “when I’m with Katherine.”

“I know,” Elena whispers back, her eyes dry as bone. “That’s why I keep trying to avoid you.”

He reaches out a hand but doesn’t touch her, hovering just about her face. She doesn’t lean into it. “It’s not that I don’t care about you,” he starts. 

Elena laughs bitterly, because this could be her. This could be her and Damon, except she has enough control of herself not to snap anybody’s neck in rage. 

She rests her face on his hand, still hovering in the air. For a moment, she closes her eyes and tries to pretend, but fails. She’s never been able to shut out reality completely.

“But it’s always going to be Katherine,” she finishes for him. 

Some things never change.


	8. Girl Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elena and Katherine have a heart-to-heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look I have no idea when in this fic the conversation falls. Also, references to things that happen in the end of s2 which again technically did not happen yet but...viva la revolution!

“What do you really hope to accomplish here,” Katherine asks, prowling restlessly around the room. “You’re seducing Damon, and trying to seduce Stefan. Is it that you love them, or you miss being the center of attention?” Katherine’s eyes are sharp as she contemplates Elena. “Whatever it is, I suggest you get over it fast.” She smiles, with a hint of fang – just enough to be a threat. “They’re mine, both of them, and I’m not done with them yet.”

Elena might be more frightened if she hadn’t spent quite so much time (most of it unwilling) with Katherine in the future. Future Katherine was more terrifying, simply because it seemed like she had less to lose, and no compunctions about holding back.

This Katherine seemed almost emotional by comparison. “What I can’t figure out,” Elena says, “is what your endgame is. Obviously you have your,” Elena gestures into the air, “tomb thing planned out. But the boys – you don’t really need them. You just like having them.”

Katherine shrugs gracefully, still pacing the room like a caged animal. “Of course I do. Don’t you?” Her gaze is direct and shameless. Katherine’s never felt the need to apologize for her actions. “Or are you going to try and deny that in the future, you’re the girl they both look to?” Elena is silent and unmoving. Katherine smirks. “Please Elena. I know you. I was you once.” Katherine pauses. “Well, a better dressed, more intelligent, version of you anyway.” She flicks invisible lint off her dress. “Actually on second thought, we’re really nothing alike.”

Elena doesn’t know how to respond, but it’s clear Katherine is expecting some sort of answer. “They’re both mine in the future,” Elena’s voice is just as shameless as Katherine’s, and she doesn’t mention Klaus. He’s irrelevant to the conversation they’re having.

“You know me, don’t you,” Katherine says suddenly. “What am I like almost 200 years later?”

Elena says, “Pretty much the same. You still use people to achieve your goals. No one actually knows those goals, except they in some way involve gain for you.”

“Ah,” Katherine exhales sharply. “I did wonder if love made me soft.”

Elena laughs, the sound echoing harshly. “Nothing could make you soft Katherine.” There were instances where Katherine was softer, when she brought Klaus’ blood to Damon, when she tried to save Stefan, but Katherine had her priorities in the exact order she wanted them – with herself listed at the top.

Katherine looks at Elena for another moment. “Maybe,” she suggests, “you don’t know me as well as you think.”

Elena sighs, making herself more comfortable on the bed. “Katherine,” she responds dryly, “No one really knows you well. You play your game too close to the chest. Whatever it is you’re actually after – love, amusement, survival – I don’t know if even future you could say.”

“Then I’m doing something right,” Katherine says. “And, in case you were curious – it’s always about survival,” her eyes are hard, and unlike Damon’s and Stefan’s eyes, just as old now as later. “I’d remember that, if I were you.”


End file.
